Parts are available in my area, not perfect but prices are reasonable.
Maybe this is old and I’m late to the party but looks like a normal bolt on repaint project. The only thing would be to look or have a guy look under the fender for any crumpled parts like the radiator support.
Actually this was similar to when I hit a deer. It was totaled because parts were not available. Kept it for the $50 charge. Body shop clued me in on where to get used parts. Did all the work and painting myself except for the pin stripe and went to Europe on the savings. If you like the car go for it. Where will you find a replacement that cheap? It would be a good time though to learn basic parts replacement and just pay for the painting.
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Edmunds says an EX with auto in clean condition and 230,000 miles from a dealer will cost you $5020. The insurer might be lowballing you. Is your insurance company representing you? If not, you should get them involved. They will get a fair value for you.
I picked an EX and not a DX because the car is black and the DX does not have that color available. If you have an EX-L, the value of a replacement from a dealer will be even higher. I live in Central MD and I’m sure that you would pay close to this amount for a replacement.
Just reading some of the other comments. The better half in my experience will always defer to just not bother fixing something, regardless. Cars, lawn mowers, washers, etc. especially if you have not demonstrated previous successes. I wouldn’t worry about it.
As far as parts, don’t buy new. You can search nation wide for used parts. Sometimes need several sources. They all ship. I’ve paid as little as $25 for a fender. If you are near a large city, in mpls there was a whole warehouse of new body parts that had some imperfection. I got a Lincoln hood with a small dent for $100. A body shop guy should be able to give your some potential sources. They don’t all buy new parts in the box.
Unless you have more time than $$$, I expect your best bet is to take the $600, let the insurance company keep the car. They’ll likely sell it to a salvage yard.
Other options
- Shop it around to some of the local salvage yards. Maybe they’ll give you more than $600.
- Keep it and hire mechanic to do a state-approved repair. Suggest to let mechanic supply parts, not you. Otherwise becomes a he-said, you-said problem, if problem develops w/repair job.
- Keep it and do the repair yourself. (Best bet of all options imo, but only if you are capable and interested in this sort of thing and have time & a place to do it. Will take quite a bit of time and effort.)
- Keep it and sell the parts one by one on the internet. This is probably the best $$$-wise, but may be quite time consuming, and you have to have a legal place to keep the car, which will look less and less neighborhood friendly as you the remove parts.
Like I say above, easiest sol’n, you take the extra $600, buy a replacement vehicle, and give the insurance company your wrecked car.
Do you think the average person can sell an engine or transmission from their driveway?
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No, but OP doesn’t claim to be average person.
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In that case sell it in Illinois where there are no inspections!
If you can’t get $5000 out of it, then I say fix it. If you fix it, then I’d like to see you extend the bumper out all the way to the edges so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.
Tell your lady that if you junk it keep the $600 that she is responsible for all engine and transmission repairs during the next 100k miles in the replacement vehicle.
If the vehicle doesn’t pass inspection, you make the adjustments necessary to pass inspection, this is not the end of the world.
I’ll bet she would like to see a $30,000 Civic in the driveway with a warranty. People fear losing money on a $600 gamble.
You just will not quit will you .
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Our sheriff dept. followed ‘Wonderful’s’ advice for a few of their cars, then decided it was not worth the cost.
Those bars on the police car are brush guards that will hardly do anything in a collision. It could hold maybe 2000 pounds at the ends before pushing in and contacting the car? Unless that black part in the middle is a bigger stronger structural piece. That’s not even the full weight of a typical vehicle. It’s probably good for deer though. One car here has hit two deer within 200k miles. Probably $7000 in damage total. That thing would have saved $7000.
Exactly right. A guaranteed loss of $10k on a brand new car is better than risking $600 + $2000 or so in repair work.
What bumper extension would you recommend?
I’d like to take the bumper off a car from a junk yard and cut parts of it out to put at the ends of the original bumper. I don’t have an aluminum welder so I would put a strip of steel over the front and put a bunch of small bolts though. I would have a piece perpendicular at the joint too. It only needs to be strong in one direction. I think having it welded would work best though.
That’s a funny picture texas. Interesting fact about those trucks with the high frame and the stock bumper is that in an accident the bumper folds down at the bottom and it and the frame over ride the front end and scalp a car or even a cross over SUV. it’s really dangerous to get hit by one of those. On the next gen 10th generation trucks they lowered the frame in the front and made the bottom of the bumper out of plastic so it doesn’t do this anymore. On other taller trucks around that time they installed catchers on the bottom of the frame that people call Prius catchers!
Fixing that car would be a no-brainer for me. Only one time in my life have I ever had car payments and those caused me to break out in a rash and get dizzy. The only saving grace was that after a couple of years I decided to sell that car and on the day the ad came out a guy showed up the same morning and gave me the inflated asking price without quibbling. So, paid the car off and still walked away with a couple of grand.
That’s why I save and buy used for cash or buy a problem child car with a problem that the owner does not want to fix. Keeping up with the Joneses is not my cup of tea.
The OP’s car (near as I can tell from the pic) appears to be pretty straight and I don’t see any rust eaten rear quarter so if it runs/drives well and uses little oil then I would be hitting the boneyards, Craigslist, or eBay for replacement parts. Heck, I’d give a grand for that car as it sits.
On police/highway patrol cars they’re called bull bars/push bars.
Tester
I got stuck in a freak snow storm on I80 crossing the Sierra’s one October, and a police car with those bumper-gadget pushed my VW Rabbit off to the side of the road, no damage or dents to the rear bumper at all. They work pretty well when needed to move a car out of the way.
Yeah I think that is mainly what the Minnesota patrol use them for. I had no idea they were that expensive but gee free shipping.
Like I said my only concern would be the condition of the sheet metal and front cross member that the fender mounts to. Can’t recall the name of the part and if it is part of the shock tower or not. Probably can’t tell until the fender and headlight housing is removed. Question would be if it is crumpled, can be straightened or if a partial salvage yard part can be welded in. Can’t believe it is critical but bolting new parts would be hard. Just part of the process but would probably need to farm that part out to a guy.
Is this a second car so that you have time to get the parts and repair it? With car prices so crazy now, it would probably be worth while. The wheels and tires look good. When you buy something else in this class you are probably going to have to put some money into service, tires, struts, alignment, upholstery, and so on.